


Color Me Suprised

by 221Breathe



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Hair Dyeing, Marauders' Era, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-12
Updated: 2016-08-12
Packaged: 2018-08-08 07:01:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7747783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/221Breathe/pseuds/221Breathe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lily Evans, armed with the desire for a change, dyes her signature red hair blonde. Needless to say, the response is widespread and not all together good. Although, one person may be willing to surprise her if she will just give him the chance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Color Me Suprised

**Author's Note:**

> This playful story is written in an attempt to get over my own unfortunate hair dying experience. Hey, they say writing is therapeutic right?

Lily Evans stood in front of the mirror and ruffled her hair for what felt like the hundredth time this hour. For her birthday, her friend Mary had given Lily a gift voguer to a magical hair dresser close to Hogsmeade. The hair dresser had, per Lily’s request, dyed her normal auburn hair a dark blonde. And it was precisely this reason that Lily had been standing in front her mirror for an exorbitant amount of time. See, Lily had wanted a change. She was tired of being the same old, predicable Lily Evans. All the muggle magazines and movies she had ever seen said new hair could help get her on the path to a new start. And when Mary had given Lily the voguer, well it was almost too perfect! She had been considering a change for months now and Miss Marble’s magical dye was advertised to last months (sometimes up to a year!). And so, Lily had leapt at the opportunity in a particularly brazen, Gryffindor fashion.  
With a final, bright smile at her reflection, Lily convinced herself for the third time today that she really did like it and marched out of the common room ready for the compliments that would assumingly be showered on her today.  
However, the facial expressions that greeted her that morning were not ones full of awe and wonder at Lily’s transformation and the first words out of her best friends’ mouths were not exactly the gushing praise she had been hoping for.  
“Wow, Lily…you really did it!” Marlene exclaimed, her eyes wide.  
“You look really different, sweetheart,” Mary attempted, trying to cover up her shock gracefully.  
“Good different, I hope?” Lily asked, wishing that she wasn’t feeling so crestfallen by their reactions.  
“Just…different,” Marlene replied, still gazing at Lily while she sipped her pumpkin juice.  
“Of course it’s a good different!” Mary said, glaring at her friend. “It was just a surprise is all.”  
“Thanks,” Lily replied with a sigh of relief.  
The girls’ conversation gratefully moved towards the upcoming Quiddich match and the new couples that emerged after the most recent Hogsmeade visit. The hair subject was dropped until Marlene and Lily started their walk to Charms together.  
“You didn’t get the super permanent dye did you, Lils?” Marlene asked cautiously.  
“Why yes, I did! Is there a problem with that?” Lily asked, hiking her school bag higher up her shoulder.  
“Not at all!” Marlene replied, a little too quickly for Lily’s taste.  
“Is it really that bad?” Lily groaned, dropping her defensive tone. All of her quiet insecurities about her hair were suddenly much louder than they were this morning. I mean Merlin’s sake, it’s not like she decided to go with pink!  
“No, of course not! I think it will just take some getting used to is all.” Marlene reasoned as they finally passed through the Flitwick’s doors.  
Lily’s Charms partner simply gazed at the new blonde with pity in her eyes and didn’t bother addressing it the rest of class.  
Throughout the afternoon, Lily found herself becoming increasingly infuriated each time a strand of hair fell in front of her vision while taking notes. Lily was used to her hair falling in her face during class. The difference was today every time she had to tuck it behind her ear, she caught a view of the now dirty, offensive color.  
By the end of the day, no one outside her close friends had complimented her on the shift. The only vocalized comments were whispers in the hallway that fell along the lines of: “Why is Merlin’s name would she ruin that perfect red color?” and “I think she looks even paler now!” and her personal favorite: “Typical muggle-born, using magic to muck up something that was perfectly fine in the first place.”  
Needless to say, on her nightly walk back to the common room Lily was stewing. She knew it was a girlish thing to be upset about, but her hair had always been such a huge part of her identity. She wasn’t just feeling down about her appearance (a thing she usually placed such little emphasis on); the day had somehow snowballed into her feeling down about herself in general. She had just wanted to try something new and to feel more like the adult everyone keeps expecting her to become during this last year at Hogwarts. She didn’t feel very much like an adult now. One more mean comment and Lily thought she just might cry into her pillow all night with only her regret to keep her company. Maybe she could start a count down calendar for when her normal red would show through again? That is, if it would ever grow back again.  
It was during this particularly miserable thought that James Potter got her attention with a loud, “Evans!”  
Lily groaned as she slowed her pace to the common room. That’s what she needed—James bloody Potter to tell her off for dying the object of his obsession for the past seven years. So help him if he makes fun of her for it, she thought, turning towards the Head Boy. She was already thinking of possible hexes that would turn his precious hair blue.  
“Come to tell me how to wear my own hair, Potter? Or perhaps you want to know what would possess a young witch like myself to ruin a perfectly good head of hair to begin with. Firstly, I would like to remind you and the rest of the student body that my choices are none of your damn business! Secondly—“  
“Evans!” Potter grabbed her by the shoulders, his hazel eyes bright with amusement and something like concern. “Why would I give a rat’s ass about your hair? I came to ask you what day we’re patrolling this week.”  
Lily took a second to pull her temper back in as she gazed up at James Potter with hopeful, hesitant astonishment.  
“You mean you aren’t going to make some off-hand, witty comment about how idiotic my choice in hair dye was?”  
James laughed, a soft smile appearing on his face. “It’s just hair. I quite like it to be honest,” he said, taking a lock of it between his long fingers. “But if you’re that worked up about it, it’ll grow back in a six months anyway. My mum has to keep getting hers done all the time.”  
Lily could have hugged the boy standing in front of her. Instead, she took a steadying breath after she realized just how close they were and how he was still rolling a strand of her hair between the pads of his fingers.  
“Well…thanks,” she said lamely, taking a step back.  
“Sure,” James smirked. He enjoyed the rare moments when he had Lily off balance and not the other way around. “I think blonde suits you, anyway.”  
Lily truly smiled for the first time since that morning, when she had been standing in front of her mirror alone. “You know what? I think it does too.”  
James Potter chuckled in response and playfully added, “You know what they say, Evans…blondes have more fun.”  
Lily shoved him in response, but couldn’t keep the smile off her face as the pair ascended up the remaining steps towards the Gryffindor common room. And though she would never admit it, Lily Evans was able to enter through the porthole with her head held high in part thanks to boy beside her--who still possessed the annoying, addicting ability to surprise her.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Reviews are very much appreciated and tend to make my week.


End file.
